Hudson's Bay Company Pulls Kate Moss T-Shirt from Shelves
While Kate Moss's most lasting legacy will undoubtedly live through photographs, the supermodel also has some pretty choice soundbites to her name.
The most famous of these — besides my personal favorite, "Why the fuck can't I have fun all the time?" — is "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels," which has become sort of a thinspiration motto in the Internet age. It's also been immortalized in many forms, including a Jonathan Adler needlepoint pillow (which retailed for over $100) and a t-shirt by designer Christopher Lee Sauvé, the latter of which was just pulled from Hudson's Bay Company shelves after backlash from angry customers.
An image of the Kate Moss tee at a HBC store started spreading like wildfire on Twitter with the hashtag #NotBuyingIt, and shoppers voiced concern that the shirt was pro-anorexia and promoting eating disorders. The retailer promptly responded to the backlash, and in a statement released to the Toronto Star, a spokesperson said: "We truly value our relationship with our customers and take their concerns seriously and we recognize that many took offense to the item. In this particular instance, while we respect the designer's art, due to the overwhelming response and the sensitivity of the matter, we made the decision to promptly remove the T-shirts from our stores and from thebay.com." A rep for HBC didn't immediately respond to our request for further comment.
Sauvé, who's known for his popular, tongue-in-cheek tees about the fashion industry — one shirt reads "I was touched by Terry" — took to his Tumblr earlier this week to comment on HBC's pulling of his design. "Most, if not all of my designs showcase some type of statement pointing out the absurdity of fashion, and this one item is no exception," Sauvé explains. "I fully understand and comprehend the severity of an eating disorder and I do not condone celebrating such pain." The shirt is currently for sale on his own web store for $65.
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Eating disorders are among the most hot-button topics in the fashion world, and to combat glamorizing the issue, many companies have taken action: Instagram has banned certain hashtags that people use to share thinspiration photos, and the CFDA started an initiative to help keep models healthy during show weeks. But Moss's quote is rather iconic, and we doubt that this is the last time we'll see it emblazoned on a piece of clothing — whether customers like it or not.
